SPECWAR – Special Warfare Division, the military black ops arm of UNAF

Tier Three – a diplomatic, political and trade alliance formed of six advanced races, including the UN and the Ascendancy. The other races are the Zhahassi Commonwealth, the Golgron Alliance, the Quorl and the Kaygryn Federacy.

UN – the United Nations, the largest human civilisation in the galaxy and one of the most powerful and influential races in the galaxy

UNAF – United Nations Armed Forces, a generic term for the UN military

UNIS – United Nations Intelligence Service

Veigis – a reference to the Veigis worlds, a handful of old, wealthy, industrialised planets that contain the influential metropolitan population of the UN and the majority of its state apparatus

VIPER – Very Important Person Recovery, an experimental special forces unit formed at the inception of the Ascendancy War to recover high-value targets abducted following the publication of the Ascendancy Roster

VL – Visible Light

Xeno Division – a wing of the UN’s diplomatic arm, responsible for official relations with alien species